Merry Christmas 2024

To my Christian friends and readers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

May it be a time of peace, joy, and love for you and your families.

Merry Christmas To My Christian Readers And Friends

May you and your families have a wonderful and very Merry Christmas.

A Very Merry Christmas To My Christian Friends And Readers

May you all enjoy and celebrate the holiday with peace, warmth, and among family and friends.

Have a wonderful Christmas.

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

Apparently Santa has had his flight exam:

He passed it successfully, even after losing an engine. 

He's now ready for his flight.

Santa's sleigh is confirmed to have functioning ADS-B and has a cleared flight plan. you can track him on FlightRadar24.com call sign SANTA1 / Aircraft ID: R3DN053.

Have a Very Merry Christmas to my Christian friends and readers.

Merry Christmas To My Christian Friends And Readers!

May Christmas 2020 bring you peace, joy, and happiness.

May it do so in this both strange and difficult year. 

Most especially may it do so if you are unable to celebrate together with your family as you usually would do.

Dear AG Nessel: You're A Shanda Fur Die Goyim

The Yiddish term A shanda fur die goyim is one rich in European and American Jewish History,

The polite modern translation is:  Dear Jewish idiot, you're making Jews look bad in front of non-Jews, cut it out you moron.

Ok, the expression in Yiddish, a shanda fur die goyim, literally means “a shame before the nations,” describing embarrassing behavior by a Jew where a non-Jew can witness it. 

It's letting the team down, ok?

By either definition, Michigan's Attorney General Dana Nessel qualifies as being a shanda fur die goyim, in spades.

 Daily Wire: Michigan AG Slams People Wishing ‘Merry Christmas’ After Trump Warning

Nessel wrote, “I remember the first time I was at a store with my son and an employee said ‘Merry Christmas’ to us. My son looked devastated as asked ‘Are we the only people who don’t celebrate Christmas?’ I answered ‘No, and we are just as American as everyone else.’ Glad @JoeBiden knows that.

Say what?!?  You actually tweeted such silliness?

I'm sorry, either I'd wager $20 on 'things that didn't really happen', or, Ms. Nessel, if your son really is "devastated" by someone wishing him Merry Christmas, you're doing parenting very, very wrong. 

I'm not sure if she's destroying her son as a man by fighting "toxic masculinity",  and raising him as an emasculated fragile flower, or what.  Quite simply, if a child falls apart when someone wishes them a Merry Christmas, you best toughen them up, a lot, and raise them better.  

Heck, its not like AG Nessel is an observant Jew offended by Merry Christmas. Instead, it's because she's a progressive first and a Jew as a distant second or perhaps even a distant third.

Guess what?  As a Jew I have absolutely no problem wishing Christians a Merry Christmas, I do it all the time. No harm is done by it to me, nor to the recipient of the words.  Indeed, it happens to be a nice thing to say to your Christian friends at Christmas.

Nor do I take offense, nor does any harm occur, when someone happens to say cheerfully Merry Christmas to me.  Such a cheerful departing statement happened today even, a few times no less, and nothing bad happened - at all. After all, this is a majority Christian country and it's not like I'm wearing an f'ing yellow badge to let someone know I'm not Christian -- and it's a good thing that's the case.

Someone saying Merry Christmas to you is quite simply not a cause for offense nor for you to be devastated.  Instead you smile, wish them a Merry Christmas in return, and be on your way.  This is not hard, difficult, nor in any way painful, at all. It's really quite simple.

In short AG Nessel, grow up, teach your son how to grow up, and quit being such a shanda fur die goyim.

Merry Christmas!

To my Christian readers and friends, may you have a joyful and peaceful Christmas season.

I've been told that Santa has passed his flight review and will be on his way to you shortly.

Christmas Day Volunteering

As usual for the family, we do a volunteer project each Christmas Day.

This year after breakfast we headed out to volunteer and got our assignment.

Our job was to help sort donated books for an upcoming book sale - Bookstock - that raises money for charity, mainly for raising funds for education and literacy in the Detroit area.

To say this was a very enjoyable volunteering opportunity for a family of bibliophiles was an understatement.

Donated books in boxes and stacks by the ton needed to be sorted into various categories - history, sci-fi, religion, fiction, mysteries, romance, biography, classics, children's books, trade paperbacks, art, etc.

This occasionally led to lots of fun discussions as to where to place a certain book. The elderly ladies in charge declared, for example, that Tom Clancy belonged in Science Fiction and not fiction because he sold better that way. One did not argue if you knew what was good for you.

Some donated books were unfortunately in lousy shape and were unsaleable had to go in the recycling bin, others sorted turned out to be rare books that were set aside for valuation.

I helped sort books, bring in shipments of books to the sorting room from the storage rooms on carts, and then sort even more books.

Lots of neat books passed through my hands on the way to the sorted piles. Every possible subject was present among the donated books.

It was a very nice volunteering opportunity with a bunch of people who all worked hard to get thousands of books sorted and prepared for the sale in record time.

I'm definitely going to have to shop at the book sale.

Merry Christmas To All My Christian Friends And Readers

A very Merry Christmas to you all.

May your Christmas Day be full of peace, joy, and all good things.

Volunteering Today At Forgotten Harvest

For Christmas morning we had signed us to volunteer through our synagogue to deliver meals for Forgotten Harvest to bring Christmas meals to the less fortunate and shut ins in the area. We delivered 32 meals and Christmas gifts to people who couldn't get out themselves this year. So we delivered meals to the disabled and elderly in the area, and wished them all a Merry Christmas. It was a good way to spend Christmas morning.

Then we went to celebrate the Jewish holiday that always coincides with Christmas Day: Yom Dim Sum.

Yes, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Tradition, ya know?

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

Yesterday we cleaned the house and then went to the movies - I to see Rogue One and Tash and the kids to watch Sing. Rogue One was pretty darn good and I'll not post any spoilers, and watching it in 3D in a practically empty theater was just about a perfect way to see it.

Then, for the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve we went to a friends house for a dinner party.

One of the guests made these two cakes from scratch:

Rather impressive and very festive.

So we lit the Menorah, had drinks a festive meal and good times with all who were there.

Once home, we gave presents for the first night of Hanukkah to the kids and then the kids went off to bed.

So a very Merry Christmas to all of my Christian friends and readers, and a very Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish ones.

A Very Merry Christmas To All My Christian Friends

In a few short hours, I and the family will be joining with Murphy's Law's family and partaking of a fine Christmas eve gathering. This tradition has been going on for years and we wouldn't miss it.

And to all of you who observe and celebrate, I echo the same sentiment from the excellent Dry Bones:

May all of you have a very Merry Christmas indeed.

Merry Christmas To You!

To my Christian friends and readers, may you have a very Merry Christmas today.

And have a thought for those Christians that face severe torment and trouble on this day:

Merry Christmas To All, And To All A Good Night.

237 Years ago today at the Battle of Trenton, George Washington introduced the world to the American Way of War:

To The Enemies of America - Annoy us enough and we'll silently cross an icy river, to kill you in your sleep, on Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

An Unwanted Christmas Present From Obama

I'm sure the timing was just a coincidence.

Just grabbed the mail today, it was delivered late yesterday and we didn't get around to it until today.

Inside was an invoice from my health insurance company.

The invoice was for some reason higher than we were used to, and reading the invoice we found out there was an extra charge being applied for coverage stating January 1, and why:

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all health insurance companies are required to collect and pay new taxes and fees to help pay for programs that are mandated under the ACA. These taxes and fees have been added to your invoice and range between 5 to 7 percent of the total premium that you pay. For more information, go to _______ and search keywords: taxes and fees.

So not only are the insurance rates going up in general under Obamacare, but my plan is now, on top of those increases, being taxed 7% to further subsidize those who don't pay for their own health care and cover more of the unsustainable costs of Obamacare, so I'm getting dinged twice for this boondoggle and paying more to get less.

Merry Christmas, right?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends and readers out there.

We had a wonderful Christmas eve at our traditional-get together with Murphy's Law and his family and this time fortunately also with Proud Hillbilly's family here in Michigan. PH's grand-daughter is really cute and getting bigger and more interactive all the time. Her two-fisted eating style was admired by all.

The kids got to meet the new dog Belle and she was very well behaved (with one misdogmeanor infraction occurring in Murphy's Law's Mom's bedroom...again...), as was Murphy.

Murphy discovered that Leah liked to play tug and he had a ball gently pulling on his toy as she held it. Gentle was a relative term, he was able to pull her right out of her chair on numerous occasions as she held on to the toybut they both enjoyed the game immensely.

A great time was had by all.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas out there.

Merry Christmas

To My Christian Readers, have a most joyful and Merry Christmas.

In lieu of the traditional Jewish Christmas Day meal of Chinese food, we're going to have a fine Christmas dinner with some friends.

So I hope you have a most peaceful and enjoyable Christmas day.

Christmas Eve with Murphy's Law

I and the family received an invite from Murphy's Law to spend Christmas Eve with his family. He came to town and brought Murphy with him.  Getting together with Murphy's Law and his folks for Christmas has become an annual tradition.

This was the first time for me and the kids to meet Murphy and he was very well behaved indeed.

Yes, I'm a good dog.

The kids had no problems petting him and he was very gentle and friendly. The time and love Murphy's Law has put into training him has certainly paid off.

In the crimes of opportunity department, however, he did scarf down a lemon meringue pie before we arrived. But if you leave a pie within a dog's reach and leave the kitchen its considered an attractive nuisance so there is some mitigation in sentencing.

Pie, for me? Well, if you insist by leaving it out...

After a great traditional dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy and all the trimmings, we exchanged gifts.

We got the Spud an MSU watch and a custom MSU light plate for his room.

As to the gift I had alluded to in my previous post for Murphy's Law, it decodes to: Ruger LCP stuff.

I got him a DeSantis Nemesis Pocket Holster for the LCP and a Ruger factory spare magazine for it.

I received a cool book from him: The Lost Squadron: A Fleet of Warplanes Locked in Ice for Fifty Years.  The book is about  the recovery effort to retrieve a squadron of P-38s and B-17s that had been buried 260 feet under the ice in Greenland after crash landing there in World War 2.  In keeping with the theme, I plan to read it this winter on a day when we're iced in to the house.

The kids got some nice craft activities as presents and everyone had a good time.

Murphy even got some yummy roast beast scraps and a walk out of the deal and was a very happy dog with all the attention.

Merry Christmas to you all from a good dog.

So to my Christian readers out there, may you have a very Merry Christmas indeed.

105.1 calls Christmas way early

Magic 105.1 has a nasty habit of celebrating the holiday season by switching over to solely Christmas music all day, all the time, 24 hours a day.

They then cutely call themselves Christmas 105.1.

This year they switched over on Halloween.

While I have nothing against Christmas music per se, its a tad bit early.

I mean, its not even Thanksgiving yet! We're still in the autumn season. There's still a multitude of shopping days left!

Not a speck of snow is upon the ground, I don't want to think about the impending snow setting upon the ground, and now some singer is gleefully crooning about a white Christmas all day long.

While 105.1 normally has a pretty good song lineup, I now have to skip past it on the radio buttons for the next few months.

Look 105.1, playing only Christmas music straight through for the next two months is a tad bit too much. In addition, would it kill you to play the Hanukkah song once in the lineup?

Just a Jew on Christmas

You've heard of the term shabbos goy? Well, this year me and the family were the Christmas Jews.

Me of Lagniappe's Lair came to town to have Christmas dinner. This is traditionally held at his Mom's condo but due to inclement interior weather conditions (her upstairs neighbor in a fine example of don't-do-it-yourself plumbing flooded her out) she couldn't host it this year.

For Me and his kin to not have a spot to celebrate was simply unacceptable so we offered to host the extravaganza, complete with as Me put it,a Hannukah Ham. Tasty, but Oy Vey.

So it was a very nice time, and after a fine dinner we watched Jeff Dunham's hilarious A Very Special Christmas Special.

Afterwards I had a longing for Chinese food and a movie, but you can't have everything.

For Christmas I got Me (him not me, he really needs a better blog name I shall now call him LLMe) (to the tune of the twelve days of Christmas): The Pacific Mini-Series, a book on World War Two Aircraft, and a Camo Mil-Surp LBE vest.

He got me a very nice knife, which I shall properly treasure. He didn't bring Murphy over after giving me the knife, probably worrying about a holiday circumcision ritual or something.

Before the dinner, we went to the Target Sports II range as he related and yes, they were as overbearing as he related. The claim that the 380 and 9x18 were steel core pistol bullets is laughable, especially as the 9x18 were hollow-points and you could look inside and see lead! The magnet was the size of a brick and was pretty clearly attracted to the steel cases, but logical arguments didn't have any effect. I agree with me that they were probably trying to get us to buy their ammo, but I also suspect they didn't want to sort out the steel cases from the brass that was littering the floor and giving them another revenue stream as the customers left their brass lying about.

On the upside, after a long time hanging about the safe I brought my S&W model 29-2 out to play and it was a accurate and perfect as ever. Simply an exquisite example of revolver craftsmanship, and my 44 Magnum reloads were dead bang on. We were very good that day and our half-fast drills (which are rather humbling as they seem so easy until you try them) were coming along. I daresay we were making the pother range attendees (there were darn few so there was really no need for them to short our time as they did - there was no lineup or wait at all). Very annoying and time to find another place to shoot.

Also as LLMe related, we went to play some laser tag with Spud. The first game I properly dominated and set the pace and came in first. I then eased off in the later games. Especially so in game three when Spud did the "let's stick to Aaron like glue trick." Gotta let the kid win some ya know to keep him coming back and not hurt their feelings and give them an inferiority complex.

So it was a very nice visit and splendid time with LLMe's family.

So a belated Merry Christmas to my Christian readers and prospective wishes to all for a Happy New Year.